Shortage of Skilled Workers? Companies Discover Women as the Key to the Future

In Düsseldorf, an event aims to bring women together with companies that are looking for staff. The format focuses on career changers, re-entrants, and direct conversations—thus tying into a labor market policy debate in which women have been considered an important employment potential for years.

On Thursday, June 11, 2026, the working group "Strengthening Women's Employment" is organizing the event "Company Seeks Woman: Talking Together, Learning from Each Other – Women Change the Economy" at the Career Information Center (BiZ) of the Düsseldorf Employment Agency. The free offer is aimed at women who are looking to reorient themselves professionally, re-enter the workforce, or consider training. At the same time, companies are to learn how they can become more attractive to female employees. The Federal Employment Agency lists the event on its own portal and also provides contact and organizational details there.

Why the Format Focuses on Direct Exchange

The approach is deliberately practical. Instead of sticking to general appeals, the event brings both sides to one place: women looking for new career paths and employers who want to recruit staff.

Planned are, among other things:

• Keynote
• Best-practice panel discussion on career changes
• Company presentations
• Round tables

Sigrid Wolf, named in the program as DGB chairwoman and head of the working group, describes the goal of the event as follows: "This is where the event 'Company Seeks Woman' comes in. It is intended to provide a platform for companies and women to engage in mutual exchange at eye level and to network with employers. We bring both sides together and into conversation. Whether career change, re-entry, reorientation, or training—here, women can learn how they can develop further and/or break into new exciting professional fields. And companies learn how they can position themselves attractively for female employees."

Behind this is a labor market policy logic that is gaining importance in many regions: Not only do open positions count, but also the conditions under which people can even enter or remain in work. When companies talk about working time models, development paths, or access for career changers, it is ultimately about removing barriers—and thus about the question of how skilled labor potential can actually be tapped.

The event description lists several regional institutions and partners as sponsors of the working group, including:

• Düsseldorf Employment Agency
• Job Center
• Düsseldorf Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK)
• Düsseldorf Chamber of Crafts
• Düsseldorf Equal Opportunities Office

What Barriers Exist in the Background

Two developments are linked in the context of the event: On the one hand, there is a shortage of workers and skilled personnel in many areas; on the other hand, women's employment is described as a potential that has not yet been fully utilized. The concept cites inflexible working hours and poor pay as central barriers—two factors that often determine in practice whether (re-)entry is worthwhile or even feasible organizationally.

There is also a structural finding that makes the debate about the "attractiveness" of work concrete: Women earn on average less than men. The Federal Statistical Office put the unadjusted gender pay gap for 2025 at 16 percent. For those affected, this is not an abstract figure: When wage differences, part-time models, and longer career interruptions come together, it directly affects financial independence, retirement provision, and the willingness to invest in further training or a change of industry. This is exactly where the Düsseldorf format comes in—not with big promises, but with conversations in which requirements and opportunities are to become as concrete as possible.

Which Companies Are Participating—and What Interests Them

According to the program, one of the participating companies is Schulz & Sohn GmbH. Mark Sethe is named as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer and places the topic in a management perspective: "Equality and diversity are not special topics for us, but self-evident aspects of modern corporate management. Economic success arises where people are given fair opportunities, take on responsibility, and can contribute their perspectives. More participation in working life is, in our view, an important prerequisite for prosperity, growth, and future viability, especially in medium-sized businesses."

The program also includes another quote from a company representative that picks up on the guiding idea of the format: Career paths today are often no longer linear; but it is precisely in this that valuable experience can lie. This gets to the heart of the career change topic: Many companies are not only looking for "finished" profiles, but also for ways to make skills from other industries usable more quickly—through qualification, onboarding, and realistic development stages. Whether and how this succeeds in individual cases, however, depends on concrete framework conditions: plannable working hours, transparent entry models, and reliable prospects are more decisive for many re-entrants than well-sounding mission statements.

What Participants Can Expect in Düsseldorf

The event will take place on June 11, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the BiZ of the Düsseldorf Employment Agency at Grafenberger Allee 300 (40237 Düsseldorf). The schedule is tightly organized:

1. 10:00 a.m.: Check-in, followed by opening and welcome
2. 10:45 a.m.: Keynote by Dr. Lydia Malin (Cologne Institute for Economic Research)
3. 11:00 a.m.: Panel discussion "Career Change: Dead End or Career Booster?"
4. Company presentations and break with snacks
5. 12:00 p.m.: Round tables
6. 1:00 p.m.: "Come Together" at the booths
7. 1:40 p.m.: Presentation of results and raffle of a business photo shoot
8. Moderation by Tabea Schneider (Düsseldorf Chamber of Crafts)

The offer is free of charge for participants; childcare is provided if needed—a detail that is likely to be practically decisive for many interested parties, as it makes it possible to attend conversation and application formats in the first place.

The journey is also described concretely:

• Public transport stop: Schlüterstraße/Arbeitsagentur (lines U72, U73, U83, 709; bus lines 725, 733, 810)
• Parking: Rear of the agency building on Ivo-Beucker-Straße and in the residential area around the agency

The benefit for interested parties thus lies less in an abstract debate than in a clearly structured contact format: Women can approach companies directly, find out about entry paths, and explore career prospects. For employers, it is an opportunity to show which working models they offer and whether they actually address frequently mentioned barriers (working hours, pay, development opportunities).

The event is therefore primarily designed as a pragmatic networking offer. Whether concrete employment prospects arise from it will be shown in the direct exchange between companies and participants. What is clear: Women's employment is explicitly discussed here as a building block for securing skilled labor—and not just as a question of equality.